US President Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that a posthumous presidential pardon will be issued by his administration for Susan B. Anthony, women's suffrage movement leader who has been charged guilty for illegally voting as a woman during the presidential election in the year 1872.
The president said he will be affixing his signature to a full and complete presidential pardon for Susan B. Anthony, while repeatedly saying that Anthony has never been pardoned and calling his move fantastic.
The declaration has been made by President Trump alongside America's first lady Melania Trump at an event in the White House celebrating the 100th anniversary of the approval of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The amendment was approved on August 18, 1920, 14 years after the death of Anthony, ABC News reported.
As stated by Trump, Anthony was charged guilty for voting, but his administration will give her a full and complete pardon.
Although the president did not specify on his announcement, his symbolic gestures appeared aimed, at least in part, at female voters, the president is trying to court in advance of the 2020 presidential election, as polls reveal the current demographic is in favor of former Vice President Joe Biden.
It also came in the middle of the relentless claims of the president, even without evidence, about the widespread fraud if the presidential election in November will be done through universal mail-in voting. And also the escalating concern over United States Postal Service disruptions that have been argued by the Democrats that put at risk the voting rights of millions of Americans who decide to cast their votes by mail because of the health risks brought by the pandemic.
While President Trump, who named himself as the law and order president, escalated fears of illegal voting leading into the 2020 presidential election, the contrary is not lost on some that Anthony was taken into custody for illegally voting
According to BBC, in a publicized trial in 1873, Susan B. Anthony demonstrated what she called high handed outrage upon her citizen's rights and that she would never pay a single dollar of their prejudiced penalty. Anthony never did, and the authorities did not make a further move.
At the same event in the White House, Trump said the Americans must have honest voting while continuing his criticisms on mail-in voting. And repeatedly uttered that the whole thing was about having honest voting.
On Monday, President Trump first said that he will be pardoning a very important person, only adding that it would neither be Michael Flynn, former national security adviser of America, nor whistleblower Edward Snowden, who copied and leaked extremely classified information in 2013 from the National Security Agency.
Susan B. Anthony is not the typical person to receive a pardon from the president that is usually given to those the president personally knows.
Recently, Trump granted disputable clemency to Roger Stone, the president's longtime adviser who was pronounced guilty on a number of charges related to the Russian interference during the 2016 election that includes being untruthful to the federal officials.
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